Forum News

The NYS Forum's first NYC session:What's the Real Story on Cloud?

For the first session of the NYS Forum in New York City, the maiden event was held at the NYC Department of Law. The July 14, 2015 event was the result of a survey sent out in May to the CIO''s of city agencies requesting what they felt were topics of interest. The survey showed there was a consistent theme of the interest in Cloud technology and practices, and with that came the first NYC event,"What''s the Real Story on Cloud"

Attended by an audience (in person and on web) of nearly 100 participants, the Tuesday afternoon''s event was a fantastic way to spark the NYC momentum. The goal of this session was to provide a thorough description of the landscape of the Cloud, starting from the basics and benefits, then getting into more targeted topics such as Cloud Security, case studies, and precautions to take.

The event was kicked off with a few words from the Commissioner of DOITT, Anne Roest, and then an introduction by the Executive Director of the NYS Forum, Joan Sullivan, who welcomed all and gave a reassuring overview on the initiative and goal of the NYS Forums expansion into NYC.

The first presenter, Ralf Schlenker - CGI, began with an exceptionally informative presentation that included a quick refresher on the basics of the cloud. He also discussed the drivers of the cloud and the top inhibitors. Ralf then went into a discussion about the history and experience of the use of the Cloud in the United States while contrasting with how the UK introduced the Cloud. Citing examples of what worked and what did not work for both of them. Ralf discussed the big trends that are to be seen in the next couple years in the industry as well as reviewing case studies to see what other people are doing with different "flavors" of the cloud.

Ralf was then followed by Mark Ryland - Amazon Web Services and Vincent Ryan - CenturyLink who both covered the many benefits of using the Cloud and citing examples of how companies have profited from its implementation.

The following presenter was Ian Morrison - Microsoft, who provided a great review of user''s number one objection to using Cloud - Compliance and Security. Ian provided thorough details on the questions one should ask and the types of things to look for when considering choosing a Cloud Provider. He spoke about the importance of fully understanding how a cloud provider operates and secures their datacenters and services and what a provider/vendor should be offering when it comes to security and protection.

Richard Green - NYSTEC led the final presentation steering the audience through a number of case studies using examples of different entities who''ve implemented the cloud. Richard helped to identify the lessons learned from others, whether they were successful or not.

The event concluded with an active and dynamic Q & A session where the entire panel of presenters joined in to provide answers and more information to the audience.